GRANA PADANO
The history tells that Grana cheese of the Pianura Padana was born in 1134 in Chiaravalle abbey, a few kms at the south of Milan. It was produced in specific boilers inside the Monasteries that can be considered as the first cheese factories. The Monks called it “caseus vetus”, meaning old cheese. The population, that didn’t have any familiarity with Latin, gave it another name, deriving from the cheese’s particular paste, compact but grainy. That’s how the name of the Grana cheese or simply Grana was born. The most mentioned Granas are the lodesano or lodigiano, considered by many as the oldest, the Milanese, the Parmigiano, the Piacentino and the Mantovano.
GRANA PADANO WHEELS
The turning point in the cheese production dates back to 1951. In Stresa, in that year’s June, specialists and operators working in the dairy sector signed an “Agreement” where they established a series of norms about cheese denominations and indications about their characteristics. On that occasion a distinction was made: “Grana Lodigiano” cheese, that later became Grana Padano, and “Parmigiano Reggiano” cheese. It was not until the 10th April 1954 that Italy established a few norms about the “safeguard of the Denominations of the typical origins of the cheeses”, and the consecutive 18th June the Consortium for the Grana Padano cheese safeguard was born.
The 30th October 1955 was issued a Decree (n. 1269) by the President of the Republic about the “Safeguard of designations of origin and typical designations of cheeses (…) concerning the sale of designation of origin cheeses and typical designation cheeses varieties in packaged pieces”, Grana Padano included. In 1966 it obtained the accreditation of Protected Designation Origin by the European Union. Following the mutated regime after this accreditation, the control’s functions – that consist in the examination of the existence of the conditions established by the Production disciplinary with the aim of giving the product the right to have the rhomboidal brand, that is the badge of the PDO Grana Padano Denomination.
(Translated by Laura Fugazzi)